


Titles and Labels

by TheSilverMoonTavern



Series: TheSilverMoonTavern's Menu Selections [16]
Category: None - Fandom
Genre: Blunt, Mental Conditions, Mental Illness, Original work - Freeform, Other, Poetry Slam, Truth, poem, sensitive
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-17
Updated: 2019-10-17
Packaged: 2020-12-20 21:30:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21063491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSilverMoonTavern/pseuds/TheSilverMoonTavern
Summary: Just a poem our bartender wrote for a poetry slam, and decided to share with all of you. This does contain some sensitive topics, but should not be overwhelming unless you are considered to be someone who is very sensitive. Please enjoy. Your feedback would be most appreciated.





	Titles and Labels

Titles and Label; everyone has at least one.  
Whether you want it or not, or whether you know it or not.  
It's true. 

You, you! Yes you! Over there!  
I Title you as my friend! (You should feel honored about that.) 

Here's the thing; Titles are nice, they really are!  
Wouldn't we all want to be Titled as royalty?  
To be spoiled all our lives because we were born under a Title?  
It's all great! At least it sounds great, on paper. 

You see; Titles has a sibling named Labels.  
We don't like Labels, we learned Labels as bad since childhood. 

You! Over there! You shoplifted from a Walmart? Then I Label you a thief!  
You will bear this on your name!  
And what about you? Or your family? Have they commited a crime, hmm?  
Have they too been Labeled a criminal by society's standard as well? 

Everyone has a Title or a Label. For once, in life, there are no exceptions. 

I, for one, have a few Titles myself.  
I am Titled as a daughter. A percussionist. A student. A devotee to my marching band.  
They all seem good, no? Care to know why they are not? Why they are a facade?  
Because Titles are nothing but flash.  
In the end, they mean little to nothing.  
The best you get out of it is some dopamine for five minutes.  
Then, once you finally earned your Title, you then have to deal with all the Labels you earned while working for this one Title. 

Take for an example; I want to be a Drum Major in my band.  
So, I work hard and flash my talent when the directors are around to show them what I know; I am the Labeled as a show off.  
I try to help my fellow band mates to show I make a good leader; I am then Labeled as a goody two-shoes.  
I stay after the bell to clean up everyone else's mess to show responsibility; I am then Labeled as an overachiever.  
In the end, I did get the title of Drum Major-in this fictional example-but I brought so many Labels with me. 

So my conclusion... 

You think you want a Title, but in the end you don't. Because you'll only find Labels clipping onto you in the end.  
Labels can make you seem bad, evil, selfish, and _yada yada yada get on with it these people don't have all day!_

You don't want a Label because it makes you look different, in a time where being seen as "normal" is perfection.  
Allow me to explain: 

Ahem... You're telling me this kid has Autism? Give him that Label, he needs it to survive in this world!  
Well, no. No he doesn't. 

Now, I know what you're thinking.  
How would I know?  
What gives me the right to make that claim?  
Well, friends, by right of birth,  
Because I am the truth of that. 

Look at me; just my physical appearance shows I'm not perfect.  
But because I don't show my imperfections, because I hide it, I don't have a Label from society as a whole.  
It's sad I have to hide from the entirety of society to be seen as me and not what a Label says I am.  
I move rapidly, I physically cannot sit still. But if I don't tell them what I have; society, my peers, the world... I can't be Labeled.  
They can't Label me with ADHD or any of its cousins because they don't know, and they won't know what I have.  
Heck, I don't even know!  
But this isn't bad, because then I can't Label myself.  
I can't judge myself, I can't hate myself.  
Because to me, I am fine. I am not Labeled. 

Yet, even through my efforts, I actually am Labeled.  
I am not Labeled by my own perspective. But by everyone else's. 

I am Labeled as a freak, because of my rocking.  
I am Labeled as a malfunction due to my inability to act like a "real girl".  
I am Labeled as obnoxious because I'm loud because I like to make those around me smile and laugh and-- 

And that's the problem.  
Who are you to Label me for my actions? For my personality? For my thought process? The only one who should ever have that right is myself.  
We do things to make others happy or to do good; and our pay off?  
We are given Labels, not even one Title. 

Kids who suffer from mental illness? Labeled, not Titled.  
People who are forced to consume a buffet of pills every morning? Labeled, not Titled.  
Someone who got a new job? A job that doesn't pay enough to support him or his family and puts him in horrible working conditions? Titled, not Labeled. 

No one cares about the Labeled, only the Titled. 

I am secretly Labeled, just as I have mentioned, but I am just like everyone else.  
We are just like everyone else!  
Even though i am still Titled, society's thoughts of perfection continue to Label me, and people like me, as-- 

... 

... 

... 

You guys know what sounds great right now!?  
Marching band!  
Whoo! Marching band!  
Come support us and rock the field at the game Friday night!  
5, 6, 5 6 7 8 SET! 

... 

... 

... 

What was I doing again? 

... 

Why are you all staring at me? 

... 

Do I have a new Label? 

... 

Are you the one's giving me that new Label? My own peers? 

... 


End file.
